Nightly Rituals
by Wallwalker
Summary: Sometimes it's hard for them to get to sleep. There's just too much to learn. (Rena/Precis)


_[A/N: Established Rena/Precis relationship. Written for a Femslash Friday prompt a while ago.]_

* * *

Everything's finally starting to come together!

You've been spending a long time staring at these plans. You've been trying to build a follow-up to the last Mujin you created - something bigger and flashier, and more efficient than the ones that your best friend Leon's been coming up with using Symbology in Lacour. And this is the best part of your work - the part where things start to click together, where the calculations start to make sense and you think that the hard part is finally over.

Just a little more work, you think. A little more, and you'll be done -

Precis?" Rena's voice only startles you a little, because she's good at being quiet. Good thing your pencil wasn't on the paper, though. "Aren't you going to come to bed soon?"

You turn to look at her. She's already wearing her pajamas, and her hair is mussed. Her eyes are already sleepy. "Isn't it... wait, what time _is_ it?" you ask. "Hasn't it only been a few hours, or something?"

"It's only a few hours til sunrise, Precis," Rena said, and she's trying to be nice, but you've been with her long enough to catch when she's exasperated and trying to hide it. Not that she was every good at hiding her feelings from you, even back when you'd first met her. "And you wanted to see Leon's presentation tomorrow morning, remember? You won't be able to sleep in before class."

Oh, right. You'd forgotten about that, in your excitement. Leon's never going to let you live it down if you don't show up. Still, though...! "I'm on a roll here, Rena!" you protest, waving your hand toward the paper. "I mean, I could finish this tonight if I tried! This is really important -"

"So is your health, Precis," Rena protests, and carefully reaches for your arm. "Come on, please. You're letting yourself get too distracted!"

You grin at that, and for a second you think about reminding her of a couple of things. _What about last week, when Professor Krasner gave you those old history texts and you nearly stayed up all night and I had to cut the power to the lights to convince you to go to bed, huh?_ It's practically a nightly ritual at this point, one of you having to convince the other to come to _bed_ already, and it's not like it's _always_ you.

But Rena gets kind of upset when you bring those things up. She would just say that she knows, but that doesn't mean that you should do the same thing! Besides, you know that she's right. You've fallen asleep in the middle of working on a project before, and it scared your Poppa half to death! You don't want to scare her that way. "Okay, okay," you say as you push yourself up. "I can probably finish this tomorrow, I guess."

"I'm sure that you can," Rena agrees, moving to support you as you both walk back to the bedroom that you actually use as a bedroom. Your dad's paying for the place with the extra room - he insisted that you and Rena would need the space - but it's easier to just sleep in one and keep the other as a combination study room and workshop. You can't use it for both at the same time, but it's worked out well enough so far.

You don't even bother to take off your clothes; you just sink down face-first onto the bed, your brain still abuzz with all of the calculations you've been working on for hours. For a bit you don't think you're going to be able to sleep anyway! You're about to say that out loud, because if you're going to be designing new robots in your head, you might as well be at the drawing board when you do it. Then Rena slips into bed beside you and starts rubbing your back through your shirt, and that helps, because it gives your brain another thing to focus on for a while.

"That's better," she says, and keeps one hand on your back as she curls up beside you. The other's busy for a second, pulling the one blanket that you have over you. You have more, if it gets cold, but so far one's all you've ever needed. "Good night, Precis."

"Mmmmph, yeah," you manage, voice half-smothered by the soft feather pillows. You always forget how nice going to bed is, up until the nights that Rena makes sure that you do. "G'night."


End file.
